JANUARY is the peak season when it comes to picking up cold and flu symptoms but Kirsten McAslan would do anything for a clean bill of health for a change. It was revealed yesterday that the 23-year-old, who missed out on Rio due to a bout of glandular fever, has had to withdraw from this Saturday's Scottish Senior Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena after succumbing to illness on her flight back from her winter warm weather training camp in Tenerife.
A bronze medalist in the 4x400m relay from Beijing in 2015, the Manchester-based athlete's luck will surely turn soon enough although it is hardly the start she would have chosen as she builds up to the World Athletics Championships in London in August and looks to book a place at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Saturday's event which is part of the Team Scotland Series, and offers athletes the first chance to post a qualifying standard for the Gold Coast in 2018.
"It is a shame because she had just returned from the glandular fever which affected her last year," said her mother Fiona, a former athlete who represented Scotland in the 400m at Edinburgh in 1986. Co-incidentally or not, she is also a doctor.
McAslan, a biochemistry graduate from the University of Bath who runs for Sale Harriers, entered the 800m in this event in Glasgow 12 months back, winning in what was one of her first attempts over the distance. But the Manchester-based athlete was scheduled to return to the 400m - the event in which she was crowned British indoor champion in 2015 - in Glasgow this Saturday, as part of a line-up which includes her fellow Glasgow 2014 Team Scotland 4.400m relay team-mate Zoey Clark of Aberdeen AC.
Those plans have now been shelved, though, and instead McAslan will consult with coach Trevor Painter - the husband of her former training partner Jenny Meadows - as to her next move. Meadows, a former European Indoor gold medalist and World Championships bronze medalist over 800m, retired this summer after an injury which prevented her from qualifying for the Rio Olympics. Despite her recent illness worries, McAslan was happy to be confirmed in November as one of the nine supported 4x400m athletes alongside the likes of Eilidh Doyle.
Plenty of big names remain in the running this weekend, however. Kirsten's brother Andrew for one, who is scheduled to take part in the men's 800m - where the competition is likely to come from the likes of Jake Wightman and Ben Greenwood, with the likes of Emily Dudgeon, Mhairi Hendry, Philippa Millage and Jemma Reekie, Laura Muir's training partner, featuring in the women's event. Glasgow 2014 competitors Grant Plenderleith, a former footballer for Stenhousemuir, and Jamie Bowie could battle it out in the 200m, with Edinburgh AC team-mates Allan Hamilton and Cameron Tindle likely to be in the running on the men's 60m. Jax Thoirs, the Scottish pole vault record holder, who narrowly missed a medal at Glasgow 2014, is also scheduled to compete.
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